Philosophy: Looking at Faith Like an MMO

You have to make the conscious decision to log in, and you only get out of it what you choose to put into it. If you don’t invest much in your spirituality, you won’t get much out of it. Likewise, what does the game mean to you if you don’t put much meaning into it? When you log in, there are others playing too. You can choose to go it alone, but it can be easier with others to accompany you.

There are daily quests. And repeatable quests. You can advance your character by undertaking quests, and sometimes the plot calls on you to perform certain activities. All of it toward a known goal, which is the ever-elusive level cap. Some people log in once or twice, but don’t get much out of the game and never return, or log in only from time to time. Some people get a great deal out of the game and log in regularly.

There are a lot of ways to increase your character’s level, and most of them involve either undertaking tasks that are greater than you, or “grinding” tasks that are at your character’s skill level. Sometimes you reach a point where the challenges are so trivial, there is nothing more you can learn from them, and you are driven to find new and greater challenges to improve yourself.

There are static parts of the environment, including non-player characters, that aid you in immersion and offer you the opportunity to lose yourself in the world. Compare to hobbies, interests, and luxuries that let you lose yourself at times, and enjoy what the game world has to offer. These don’t help you to level up, though, or the NPCs may offer a distraction but not a quest. Some NPCs, you can just ignore.

It’s important for you to find things in the world (like gaming!) that help you find a greater context in which to enjoy the world, and through those things, find greater faith. Why believe in a world that you get nothing out of? For some people, it’s the outdoors, and for some people, it’s the social networking. Some people enjoy life simply for the other people “playing the game.” Some find clubs and “join a guild.”

If you don’t log in for a long time, your character remains unchanged. Sure, someone else can level up your character for you, and you technically advance, and that works for some people. It’s just a different way of playing the game. Sometimes it’s what you want, because you just want to be able to play at the same level as your friends, and that’s okay too. Faith can be a vehicle to connecting with other people.

You might seek out ways of integrating your faith with the rest of your life, just as you look for ways to increase your character’s level in different ways. “Do I level up in this zone or that zone?” “Are any of my friends online?” “Do I work on my character, or do I just go exploring the world?” “Do I level up with my friends or by myself?”

Some people might never level up, and you know what? That’s okay too. There are things outside the game, that can be just as important. There’s no reason to admonish someone for not playing the game, just because you like it. Faith is a vehicle to life. Maybe there’s something to get from maxing your character’s level, and maybe there isn’t. That’s entirely up to the player.